Sick at Work or School

I have teenage twins. They will be 17 on Wednesday. They both work at a large fast food chain. The older twin was supposed to start at 9.30 a.m. the younger took up a shift as a favour to the (nice) manager and was starting at 2 p.m. This morning the younger twin was ill with a high fever, achy bones, a sore throat and a cough, and feeling generally blah. So I rang the office from 8.30 onwards but no one picked up until 8.45. The person said she'd pass on the message,. At 9.30 one of the (not nice) managers rang his mobile and told him off for not going in! (I told my son he shouldn't have answered his mobile!) The nice manager rang at 1.30 asking if someone could pick up a shift, she'd forgotten the younger twin was already going to do it. I told her the older twin was ill and throwing up. When the younger twin went in he got in trouble for his brother not going in and the (not nice) manager was really hard on him. Now the guidelines they get when they join clearly state they should not go to work if they're ill and should phone up - admittedly it says two hours before the shift - but if no one answers the phone it's not our fault. And it's neither twin's fault. I am not impressed.

Logic (and sanity) tells me I should take the day off but I tend to go in. It's easier to plough through when sick than pick up the pieces the next day when everyone has done it all wrong. LOL. The only time I took any length of time off was when I had a threatened miscarriage. Nothing was more important to me than the life of my baby. Luckily he is now 18 years old :) But still i go in to work with a cold, though I try not to cough and splutter on people.

I agree with you its not fair to go to public places when you are sick. But there can be variations. Last week, my son had to go to school even he was having caugh and cold cos they have 3rd term tests. I sent him for the test and picked him up as soon as he finished it. I of course, have not fallen sick for as long as I remember. But my hubby goes to work whether he is sick or not. He just cant stay at home (LOL)

I don't send my kids to school if they are sick. I keep them home until they are better. If you put sick people out into the general public, you are just spreading the sickness around to everyone. Elderly and asthmatic people can really suffer just from the common cold. If we ever have a pandemic, it would be spread even more quickly by those who go out in public while they are contagious.

In the past I used to go to work when unwell, mainly because there was no staff to replace me, but then I finally decided that this is not the go as you are only spreading it around, blow what the Employer thinks and so would take the time off, but things have changed so much now, am glad not to have to confront it anymore!

Personally, I've been known to turn up for work with a broken wrist! But that is completely different to spreading germs around. All it seems to take these days is one person coming in with a cold, the germs get into the airconditioning system and then there is an epidemic of it in the workplace. It would probably be for the best if these people stayed at home and got some rest. LOL

I always struggled with that when I was working, knowing that at times it was better germ-wise, if I stayed home. But sometimes the "good" of you being there outweighed the "bad" of you spreading germs. I think it partly depends on the job you have and also whether you can still function. One job I had, my supervisor told me to come in sick and lay my head on the desk if I needed to, as long as I could look up parts locations for machines that kept a factory running; because for every minute the machines weren't running it cost the company thousands of dollars. At another job, again, things didn't run as well and there were losses on days I wasn't there so it was always a difficult decision for me to make as to which was the greater good of all concerned.

I do not work now but when i did i usually stayed home if i had something that was going around like flu ,bad cold,or some other virus. If i was just sick like headache, upset stomach i would usually go to work.I have a lot of back trouble and have had to have many months off work so if i wasn't sick enough to go to the doctor i would go to work

I do try to continue working even when I'm sick, but I am reasonable about it. If I believe myself to be contagious, or if I'm so sick that I'm making myself worse by being out and about, then I'll stay home to recoup. If we all stayed home when we were less than 100% well, I wonder if there would ever be a day at any workplace when everyone was there. When I worked full time I worked sick because it would put me too far behind to miss work and I would get occurrences on the attendance system. Now that I work part time without benefits (including no sick pay), I try to work as much as I can because I won't get paid if I don't work. I do try to be sensible about it, though.

Plz ossie16d do n't mind. I did n't like urs offensive tone on this discussion. Listen!! off course, no one wants to become ill but if someone becomes then its n't his/her own falt. Health, wealth and sickness r blessed by God. I think that u should n't say that "spread germs". A sick person spreads germs but we should n't say to him/her straightly that u r ill and be in distance from me plz so that urs germs may n't make me ill too. I did n't go to school when i was sick and sometimes in college too do n't go due to my headache. I think that sick person should stay at home so that he/she may take rest and recover soon instead of thinking about that i am sick and my surroundings'll too become sick due to me.

It would depend on how sick I am I guess, I always take Codral when I have a cold/flu so that helps lessen the symptoms. If it's really bad I will stay at home, or if I know I won't be missed. but sometimees if its really busy then I'll have to drag myself in. I've had 2 sick days in the last month or so though, mostly because my job is so boring and I'm kinda over it at the moment, so have just stayed home when I felt a little off-colour.

I never went to school when I was sick. But for me sickness is when I've fever..XD I can perfectly remember then when I had bad colds (most of the time..ò.ò) I went to school and my math's professor said me that I was crazy, 'cause going to school I'd spread germs XD While if I stayed at home, I'd be fine in a few days..

Please people PLEASE keep your runny nose kids at home. If you're sick stay the hell out of the stores. Oh you have that and that and it has to get done. How fair is it for you to bring your gemrs out into the world and infect them rest of us?

I think everyone should stay home when they are ill. It's impossible not to contact anyone when you are at work no matter how hard you try. Plus your germs will get on your desk and the chair, not to mention the air. Stay home! Get better! Your coworkers will thank you!

You don't get paid if you don't go, so yes I would go to work if I were sick. Unless I was too weak (which happened once). The places I worked at--well we were a dime a dozen. And I get sick often and stay sick for long periods. I would have lost my job if I stayed home every time I got the flu. And since I didn't have health insurance for a few years I couldn't even go to the doctor to get better. You just suck it up, take lots of over the counter cold medicine and do your job. When I was working on a college campus we had a flu outbreak. It pretty much shut the town and school down. There were, I believe, 8 strands of the flu going around and in a small college it just kept getting passed back and forth. Every single person at work was sick but we couldn't all call in. Someone had to cook for the kids (who were also sick). I remember going in at 6:30-7am to work for one lady who missed a whole week because of it and staying until 5pm (or later). I was doing her job, my job and 2 other people's jobs all at one time. I was filling the silverware, trays, soups and desserts. Then I would run back and help the other ladies serve food, make sandwiches, etc then I would run back and work the dishroom for 20 minutes. Just until I was needed back in the dining room to fill the salad bar. It was crazy and tiring. That one day we had 10 people out sick, several of them were in the hospital.

I will only go to work or school sick if I am 100% knowing that what I have is not contagious, and that I can still get the job done. I very rarely fall extremely sick other then from, my Depression, or asthma... Usually for me I get over colds and flus within a day, or anything else. If it is contagious I will not go to work or school with it. As I believe it is best to Quaranteen myself from spreading whatever it is around, unless I can go without spreading it... Like if its a contagious infection on my skin, and As long as no one touches it they will be fine, Keep it covered then, and if it's safe to do so I will resume work or school. Otherwise the world would be a healthier place if people did miss work and school if they knew what they had was contagious stayed home in their rooms to heal, and then basically cleansed the room well. - DNatureofDTrain

It's alway's better to take rest if you are not feeling well.I don't think working is prefered if there are no people around....even doctors advice rest.They don't say, you can work if there are no people around or even if the surroundings are healthy...do they? instead of agrivating your sickness, it's alway's better to get alright first.wWhat do you say....am i right here?

If I have a minor cold, I'll still go. But unless I very desperately must go to work or school (like for a final or something), I don't go if I feel pretty sick. If I've just got a bit of a stuffed up nose, but not bad, I can't afford to stay home for every little thing. And if it's non-contagious, I'll almost definitely be to work or school. I'd prefer others to stay home, but I know that not many people can afford to (for work at least, school is a different story). I think going to school or work when you're like throwing up and stuff is horrible though. I'd never do that. I've seen someone at school that came in and had the flu. And at work I've heard that before people have come in and kept having to run to the bathroom.

i dont think its good going to work sick, but what if they threaten your job??? i worked with the public and i lost my voice and was coughing and all gross. they told me if i didnt find someone to cover me to find another job. and i needed that job at the time. and since i worker 3rd shift no one want to cover you.

Yes, it is a good topic. Whether it may be school or work or any sort of major involvement at home, no doubt, health and hyegine are prior to everything. By staying at home with rest and medicines, we not only care to improve our health but also isolate us from many others in our environment and reduce the chances of spreading of infections from us. This ultimately controls the disease. This is not the process of medicine or counselling, rather an application of our common sense. We must not ignore it anytime. Thanks.